University of Virginia Library

COPY IN SUBSTANCE OF A LETTER TO G. L. TURBERVILLE,
ESQ.

Your favor of the 20th Ult. not having got into
my hands in time to be acknowledged by the last
mail, I have now the additional pleasure of acknowledging

along with it your favor of the 24, which I
recd yesterday.

You wish to know my sentiments on the project
of another general Convention as suggested by New
York. I shall give them to you with great frankness,
though I am aware they may not coincide with
those in fashion at Richmond or even with your own.
I am not of the number if there be any such, who
think the Constitution lately adopted a faultless
work. On the contrary there are amendments wch
I wished it to have received before it issued from
the place in which it was formed. These amendments
I still think ought to be made, according to
the apparent sense of America and some of them at
least, I presume will be made. There are others
concerning which doubts are entertained by many,
and which have both advocates and opponents on
each side of the main question. These I think
ought to receive the light of actual experiment,
before it would be prudent to admit them into the
Constitution. With respect to the first class, the
only question is which of the two modes provided
be most eligible for the discussion and adoption of
them. The objections agst. a Convention which give
a preference to the other mode in my judgment are
the following 1. It will add to the difference among
the States on the merits, another and an unnecessary
difference concerning the mode. There are amendments
which in themselves will probably be agreed
to by all the States, and pretty certainly by the
requisite proportion of them. If they be contended

for in the mode of a Convention, there are unquestionably
a number of States who will be so averse
and apprehensive as to the mode, that they will
reject the merits rather than agree to the mode. A
Convention therefore does not appear to be the most
convenient or probable Channel for getting to the
object. 2. A Convention cannot be called without
the unanimous consent of the parties who are to be
bound by it, if first principles are to be recurred to;
or without the previous application of 2/3 of the State
legislatures, if the forms of the Constitution are to
be pursued. The difficulties in either of these cases
must evidently be much greater than will attend the
origination of amendments in Congress, which may
be done at the instance of a single State Legislature,
or even without a single instruction on the subject.
3. If a General Convention were to take place for the
avowed and sole purpose of revising the Constitution,
it would naturally consider itself as having a greater
latitude than the Congress appointed to administer
and support as well as to amend the system; it would
consequently give greater agitation to the public
mind; an election into it would be courted by the
most violent partizans on both sides; it wd probably
consist of the most heterogeneous characters; would
be the very focus of that flame which has already
too much heated men of all parties; would no doubt
contain individuals of insidious views, who under the
mask of seeking alterations popular in some parts
but inadmissible in other parts of the Union might
have a dangerous opportunity of sapping the very
foundations of the fabric. Under all these circumstances
it seems scarcely to be presumable that the
deliberations of the body could be conducted in harmony,
or terminate in the general good. Having
witnessed the difficulties and dangers experienced by
the first Convention, which assembled under every
propitious circumstance, I should tremble for the
result of a Second, meeting in the present temper
of America and under all the disadvantages I have
mentioned. 4. It is not unworthy of consideration
that the prospect of a second Convention would be
viewed by all Europe as a dark and threatening
Cloud hanging over the Constitution just established,
and, perhaps over the Union itself; and wd therefore
suspend at least the advantages this great
event has promised us on that side. It is a wellknown
fact that this event has filled that quarter
of the Globe with equal wonder and veneration, that
its influence is already secretly but powerfully working
in favor of liberty in France, and it is fairly to
be inferred that the final event there may be materially
affected by the prospect of things here. We
are not sufficiently sensible of the importance of the
example which this Country may give to the world,
nor sufficiently attentive to the advantages we may
reap from the late reform, if we avoid bringing it
into danger. The last loan in Holland and that
alone, saved the U. S. from Bankruptcy in Europe;
and that loan was obtained from a belief that the
constitution then depending wd be certainly speedily,
quietly, and finally established, & by that means put
America into a permanent capacity to discharge with
honor & punctuality all her engagements.